Thumbnail photo by Paul Critz
Linda Sutter says she has taken her concerns that a majority of the Crescent City Harbor commissioners are unlawfully occupying their seat to the California attorney general.
Sutter, a recent participant at public meetings whose 2024 run for the Crescent City Harbor board was unsuccessful, told Del Norte County supervisors on Tuesday that she has filed a quo warranto complaint with the California Attorney General’s Office. Her filing comes ahead of a renewed discussion scheduled for Wednesday’s Crescent City Harbor District meeting on a proposed resolution affirming that the district’s insurance coverage complies with a state requirement that each individual commissioner hold a $5,000 faithful performance bond.
Sutter told county supervisors that evoking the legal proceeding challenging an elected officials’ right to hold public office is the last lawful mechanism she has to “address what is happening at the Crescent City Harbor District.”
“I provided the attorney general with copies of the harbor commissioners’ oaths, county counsel’s letter, the letter the Harbor District intends to send to you and the newly-adopted resolution the district claims resolves the issue,” Sutter told supervisors. “I submitted copies of the oaths signed by Harbormaster Mike Rademaker despite the fact that he did not administer the oaths.”
Sutter has brought her concerns regarding what she says is the Harbor District’s mismanagement to the Board of Supervisors for several months. On Tuesday, she criticized the proposed resolution the CCHD Board of Commissioners is expected to discuss at Wednesday’s meeting, stating that “a letter asserting compliance does not change what the statute requires.”
The statute requiring individual faithful performance bonds for each commissioner is found in Section 6056 of the California Harbors and Navigations Code. The Harbor District’s proposed resolution states that the use of a blanket bond protecting it against crime and fraud meets the faithful performance bond requirement.
At the CCHD’s Jan. 28 meeting, Rademaker told commissioners that the harbor has been complying with the Harbors and Navigations code since March 2012. Calling the notion of an administrative oversight ousting a duly elected commissioner absurd, the harbormaster said “we’ll go through the procedures to satisfy anybody who might have concerns.”
On Tuesday, Sutter said that the Harbors and Navigations Code’s faithful performance bond requirement is a condition that needs to be met before a commissioner assumes office.
“Under California law, a failure to qualify for office cannot be fixed retroactively,” she told supervisors. “A resolution passed after the fact does not validate unlawful service and a letter asserting compliance does not change what the statute requires.”
Sutter’s continued statements to the Board of Supervisors regarding the Harbor District prompted its contracted fiscal officer, Sandy Moreno, to make a public statement Tuesday.
According to Moreno, who had been a watchdog of the harbor before becoming its contracted fiscal advisor, the blanket bond in lieu of a faithful performance bond was issued to the Harbor District in 2009. The faithful performance bond language was added to the Harbor District’s insurance policy in March 2012, she said.
Moreno also addressed statements Sutter and others have made about Rademaker’s performance as Crescent City harbormaster.
Moreno told supervisors that she had also been a critic of the Harbor District’s performance, but said that despite statements to the contrary, Rademaker isn’t lying.
“I’m in there watching what he’s done and he’s working hard every day,” Moreno said. “He gets stalked by people, he gets called (a) liar as he was again here today. I’m in there, I’m working every day, I’m not seeing it.”
Moreno repeated Rademaker’s statement from Jan. 28, that the lack of a faithful performance bond is an administrative oversight that’s being blown out of proportion. Moreno also mentioned a public commenter referring to themselves as “Project Seahorse” that submitted a formal notice of governance deficiencies, but said this is the first time they’ve heard from them.
“She’s heard these things from people who have stood before you and said these things and it’s taken as fact,” Moreno said. “I’m here telling you it’s not fact.”
Currently the only seated harbor commissioner to have a faithful performance bond approved by the Board of Supervisors is Annie Nehmer. At the Harbor District’s Jan. 28 meeting, Commissioner Dan Schmidt that he has obtained a faithful performance bond, a process he said took 24 hours and cost $150.
The Crescent City Harbor District will meet in open session at 2 p.m. at 101 Citizens Dock Road in Crescent City or via Zoom. For more information, click here.
